South Africa - Bronx High School of Science



South Africa

Terms and People:

African National Congress:The ANC, oldest and most powerful; anti-apartheid ground. Inter-racial although pre-dominantly black. Originally hoped it could use techniques of civil disobedience to bring about change. Found it had to resort to acts of violence, although never deliberately directed its violence against people. Wanted black majority rule and one man, one vote elections. Seems to favor socialist ecomomic policies, a source of concern for many who feel this will discourage investment in Post-Apartheid South Africa. By 1993, had ssuccessfully negotiated with white, minority government for dismantling of apartheid system and black rule. Elections were held in April, 1994. They resulted in ANC leadership of South Africa.

Afrikaners: White, South Africans who claim to be able to trace their ancestors to original Dutch and Huguenot settlers of Capetown in 17th century. In 1948, their National Party won electoral majority and institutionalized and legalized policy of “apartheid.”

Apartheid:(pronounced apart - hate). Policy of racial separatism legalized by National Party in 1948 and applied to South African Blacks and people of color (Colored [mulattoes], Indians, Malays). Designed to give white minority best land, jobs, education and political and economic power. Led to a repressive state dominated by state-run security services, many of which were secret. Blacks were given separate and very unequal living conditions. Areas within the country created called Homelands based on tribal affiliations created where Blacks were supposed to live and theoretically could have self-government.

Blacks (note capital “B”): Refers to all non-whites in South Africa: blacks, Asians and Coloreds. Note: None of these communities is monolithic, but are composed of many factions and parties.

Chief Gatsha Buthelezi: Chief of South Africa’s five million Zulus, a traditionally militant tribe. Buthelezi is seen as a major opponent of the African National Congress and his Inkatha party has no trouble using force and terrorist tactics to make its points.

F.W. deKlerk: Former President of South Africa (1989-1994), leader of National Party. Realized that apartheid could not go on forever and has led country on a reform path. Released Mandela from prison in 1990. Was involved in negotiations that will led to black participation in government. Shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela for peaceful dismantling of the apartheid system. Is currently the Number Two Man in the South African government. Many still believe he is the real leader and decision-maker in the South African government, given his experience, international recognition, and esteem within the business community where he is viewed as a conservative. He is now vice-president and

“second” in power to Mandela.

Homelands, Homeland Policy as determined by the Bantu Self-Government Act of 1959: Areas of land set aside for blacks where, based on tribal affiliation, they were to live and where they exercised political power. The least arable and often the most remote sections of the country. Every black was required to spend at least some portion of the year in the homeland even if their jobs were in the cities or industrial areas. Has had a terrible impact on black family life. One of worst parts of apartheid.

National Party: Came to power in 1948. Represented Afrikaner interests. Responsible for apartheid. Is now engaged in dismantling apartheid and creating the NEW SOUTH AFRICA - a multi-racial nation.

Nelson Mandela: Head of African National Congress. Sent to jail for anti-apartheid activities in 1964. Released in 1990. Was involved in negotiations aimed at changing the country and was elected the first President of South Africa. Currently, a senior statesman, he is devoting a great deal of his time to solving the problems of other African states. His is a respected voice in international affairs.

Pass Laws: Under apartheid, every black required to carry an internal passport. Designed to control labor flow in and out of cities and protect jobs for Afrikaners. Repealed.

Sanctions: Policy adopted by the United States and other nations in mid-1980’s to restrict foreign investment in South Africa, weaken the economy and force an end to apartheid. Although Blacks suffered, the effort seems to have paid off. The sanctions put enough pressure on the National Party and the South Africa Government to end the apartheid system. The United States lifted its sanctions two years ago and American corporations are one again investing in South Africa.

Chronology:

1652 - At Capetown, a fine, natural harbor, the Dutch establish a way-station for ships bound for the Indies. Many Dutch decide to stay and settle the region as farmers. They are known as BOERS.

1806 - British take Cape Town out of a need to protect the trade route to India.

1820 - The Cape Colony boasts 5000 settler. Friction between the Boers and the British increases.

1834 - Britain ends slavery in the kingdom and its overseas territories. In South Africa, the British protect the African tribes. The Boers, members of the Dutch Reform Church which preaches the superiority of the white man, leave Cape Town and move in land to the Transvaal and The Orange Free State. The British stay in the region that extends from Cape Town to Durban.

1867 - Diamonds are discovered at Kimberly.

1884 - Gold is discovered in the Witswatersrand.

1880’s - Cecil Rhodes, an Englishman who comes to Cape Town to make his fortune and does so in diamonds and gold, urges the English to move into Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Rhodes dream is of a Cape to Cairo Railway. His scheme fits in nicely with England’s imperialist goals.

1899 - British come into conflict with the Boers; the result is The Boer War. Winston Churchill is a reporter in South Africa during this conflict. The Boer War ends in 1902 with a victory for the British, although this conflict was so bloody and involved the loss of so many lives on both sides that many historians feel that neither side was victorious. Captured Boers are put into the equivalent of concentration camps.

1910 - The British form the Union of South Africa, combining Boer and British regions. The country is independent with commonwealth status. Members of the Commonwealth has special trading privileges. A white minority dominates a black majority.

Under British rule, many Blacks fine employment in the mines, the construction industry and small businesses. The British also establish schools and universities for the Black. Afrikaners begin to feel that the Blacks are getting a better economic deal than they are.

1912 - ANC formed. Using the American black experience as their model, their aim is one of “separate but equal.”

1914, 1940. Blacks serve in the British Armed Forces (not on the frontlines however). The exposure to European society has a great impact on Black thought. Blacks begin to think in terms of a democratic society.

1948 - National Party , the Afrikaner party, wins elections. (Remember, Blacks do not have the vote.) National Party quickly makes “Apartheid” official policy to protect the interests of its supporters.

1949-1982 - Laws passed restricting rights of Blacks: range from Homelands Acts and Pass Laws to “petty” laws requiring separate beaches, transport, hospitals, living quarters, public restrooms, etc.

1960 - Sharpeville Massacre -Blacks, following Ghandi’s principles of civil disobedience peacefully protest pass laws. Police fire on them and shoot many in back as they are fleeing. Captured on film by a Life magazine photographer who brings the injustices of apartheid to the world’s attention.

1961 -ANC banned. Launches underground movement of sabotage (idea not to harm civilian populations). Nelson Mandela, a young lawyer, is active in movement.

1964 - Mandela and other blacks captured, tried, sentenced to life imprisonment.

1969 - Inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr. and American civil rights movement, Black South Africans step up their protests. Try to keep them peaceful. Are often put down violently.

1970 - 1980’s - South African economy expands rapidly and blacks find themselves allowed to do jobs formerly reserved for whites: driving trucks, operating machinery, serving white customers in banks, restaurants, stores. They are not paid same salaries, must live in separate “townships.”

1976 - Government sets off student riots when it says that all education must be done in Afrikaans, not English. Law quickly repealed, but world’s attention again focused on South Africa. (The reaction to these laws is depicted in the musical Serafina.

1976 - 1994 and after. Black activism increases. Often meets with open use of force or secret police actions.

1979 - A (white) commission appointed to study black problems recommends some loosening up of apartheid. Trade unions are recognized. A black middle class allowed to emerge. Hope is that this will win black support for white government. (It does not.)

1984 - Bishop Desmond Tutu - Anglican Bishop and anti-apartheid leader wins Nobel Peace Prize.

1985 - Many of the world’s nations impose economic sanctions on South Africa. (see above)

1989 - F.W. deklerk, once an active advocate of apartheid, comes to power as President. Realizes need for reform if South Africa is to have a meaningful place on African continent and in world.

1990 - Nelson Mandela is released from prison. His walk to freedom is broadcast, live, on worldwide television.

1990- present - Apartheid is rapidly being dismantled. Pass Laws abolished, schools, hospitals, restaurants, some housing integrated. Many nations lift sanctions. ANC and National Party government enter into negotiations to hold elections and re-write the constitution. Black on Black violence increases as Zulus oppose the ANC (primarily Xhosa tribe). Also aggravating the situation are large numbers of young men and women who have grown impatient with the slow pace of change. Their education and economic opportunites still lags behind that of the White population. Other problems include making the change from a repressive society to a free society.

April, 1994 - Elections take place in which Blacks and Whites participate. Nelson Mandela becomes South Africa’s first Black President. Mr. deKlerk is Vice President.

1995 - Violence is becoming part of the South African lifestyle as young blacks in particular who feel that the government is not doing enough for them turn against their own people. Because their experience with the agents of law enforcement has been so negative, increasing numbers of black South Africans do not trust the agents of law and order. For many, violence is a way of life and will continue to be so until they find a place for themselves in “the NEW SOUTH AFRICA.”

Reconciliation

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established after South Africa’s transition to a nonracial democracy. Its primary purpose is to investigate acts of violence and discrimination committed by the apartheid regime.

The TRC also hopes to obtain as complete a record as possible of the abuses inflicted by individuals and organizations during the apartheid era, including abuses by exile groups like the ANC and the Pan-African Congress.

In the hope of fostering a climate of reconciliation, those who confess to human rights violations can apply for amnesty. Following a period of “truth recovery,” which ends this year, the TRC expects the government to implement a policy of reparation and rehabilitation for the victims of apartheid.

The TRC’s motto, “Truth: The road to reconciliation,” is a noble ideal, but not all citizens agree with this effort to come to terms with South Africa’s past. Here’s what some people are asking:

Does confronting the “truth” bring about healing, or does it reopen old wounds?

Should gross perpetrators of abuses receive amnesty?

Is true reconciliation possible if people are categorized as oppressors or victims?

Can “truth” be established if each person’s memory of an event is different based on their experience?

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission may not resolve these questions. But perhaps these hearings will help South Africans move away from the pain of the past and move closer to the promise of the future.

THE SOWETO STORY

Soweto (orignally an acronym for South Western Townships) comprises a number of townships which developed into a city as a result of a policy of territorial and political segregation followed by South Africa’s successive White dominated governments during the 20th Century.

EXCLUSION FROM POWER AND WHITE CITIES

At the beginning of the century the Witwatersrand gold mines attracted large numbers of Black labourers who were housed in compounds on the mines. Company and municipal hostels housed migrant workers for other industries while some, such as domestic workers, resided at their places of work. As industries developed, the need for a more settled work force grew and in turn, the need for homes.

The miners administration’s inter-colonial Native Affairs Commission of 1902-1905 advised against franchise rights for Africans that might weaken the supremacy of the ruling White class. They also approved the creation of “locations” for urban Africans on the outskirts of “White” cities. Klipspruit, south of Johannesburg, and two smaller locations within the town area, Western and Eastern Native Townships, were established in 1904.

The principle of segregation was reaffirmed in the constitution of the Union of South Africa in 1910. Subsequently an increasing number of laws were passed entrenching segregation between Whites and “non-whites” in all walks of life.

The exclusion of Africans from positions of power resulted in a storm of protest. During the 1910’s and 1920’s political and labour organisations were established throughout the country to unite Africans and oppose repression. Prominent amongst these were the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), renamed the African National Congress (ANC) in 1923, the Industrial and Commercial Union (ICU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP).

These organisations followed a path of moderate resistance, attempting to secure change by way of passive resistance, petitions and delegations to government. Apart from a few labour-related strikes which were suppressed by force, the emphasis was on non-violence.

ORLANDO ESTABLISHED, INCREASED URBANISATION

During the 1930’s the SACP and ANC seemed to lose direction and even the All-African Convention failed to prevent further repressive legislation.

In 1931 the Johannesburg City Council Organised a competition for the design of a new Black township for 80 000 residents south west of Johannesburg. Called Orlando, it was the first of its kind in South Africa and, with Klipspruit, was to form the core around which other townships were to develop and eventually become Soweto. The winning entry called for a layout of concentrically grouped streets around cores in the form of squares, linked by diagonal streets. Several parkes served as antipodes to the squares. Because of the low level of state assistance, City Council could not provide the required community services in Orlando and the result was mass of similar little detached houses in monotonous design. They layout reflected western ideology and ignored grassroots community requirements.

Natural disasters and exclusion from farm land resulted in an increasing influx of Africans coming to Johannesburg in search of work. During the World War II South Africa experienced high rates of economic and industrial growth accompanied by rapid urbanisation. Little attention was however, given to housing and services for Africans and widespread squatter groupings ensued.

In 1954 the government attempted to relocate over 60 000 African, Coloured, Indian and Chinese inhabitants from Johannesburg to areas south west of the city centre on the pretext of removing them from overcrowded and unhygienic conditions. Blacks were to be accomodated on the farm Meadowlands, west of Orlando.

FREEDOM CHARTER, SHARPVILLE

Campaigns against the Bantu Education Act and Western Areas Removal Scheme were overshadowed by the ANC’s Congress of the People at Kliptown, south of Orlando, in 1955 where the Freedom Charter for the democratic South Africa of the future was adopted. The authorities interpreted the acceptance of the Charter as sedition and arrested and charged 156 supporters of the Congress Alliance with treason. The case dragged on for four years. None of the 30 accused who were eventually tried were found guilty.

The Africanist wing of the ANC in their pursuit of a purified African nationalism found passive resistance, multiracialism and co-operation with Whites and Communists unacceptable. Determined to take the lead in the protest movement, they broke away from the ANC and for the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) in Orlando in 1959. Politically the PAC stood for government of Africans for Africans by Africans.

The PAC’s anti-pass campaign of 1960 culminated in a country-wide work stay-away and demonstrations on March 21. At Bopholong and Sharpville near Vereeniging police, who claimed to have felt threatened, opened fire. 71 demonstrators were killed and 180 wounded.

The Sharpville crisis had far-reaching effects. The government refused to make any concessions and banned the ANC and PAC, which they blamed for the crisis.

GREATER MILITANCY, APARTHEID ENTRENCHED

Driven underground, African leaders were now determined to meet violence with violence. The PAC formed a military wing, POQO (pure), and the ANC its equivalent Unkhonto we Sizwe (spear of the nation) also known as MK, under Mandela’s leadership, both followed a programme of sabotage.

The police’s discovery of MK’s headquarters with documents detailing plans for sabotage and revolution, led to the arrest and imprisonment for high treason of many of the movements high command, including Mandela, in 1964.

The various resistance movements, now operating in exile, became allies in a campaign to isolate South Africa from the international stage. In South Africa itself, apartheid was becoming more entrenched.

The establishment of Bantustans or self-governing homelands for the various African groups, meant to reduce the flow of Africans to the cities. They had to attend schools in the homeland and only children living “legally” in urban areas could be educated there.

Implementation of the policy was impossible. Rapid population growth in both urban and rural areas created a shortage of schooling facilities. In addition, poor education for the majority of the country’s population was leading to an acute shortage of skilled labour. Of the estimated four million skilled jobs South Africa would need by 1980, only half at most could be filled by the small White population. Secondary schooling for Africans was expanded and between 1972 and 1976 the number of secondary schools in Soweto doubled while the number of secondary pupils trebled.

STUDENT DISSATISFACTION, LANGUAGE ISSUE

Overcrowding and poor facilities drove students into open conflict, adding to the long standing laguage dispute between the African community and the education authorities.

Since 1959 mother tongue instruction had been used only at primary schools. Official policy determined that both English and Afrikaans be used at seconday schools. The policy was never fully implemented due to the shortage of teachers proficient in both languages. In 1974, however, the government decided to impose the use of Afrikaans in Mathematics, Social Studies, Geography and History at secondary school level. As Afrikaans was perceived to be the language of the oppressor, the measure triggered a violent reaction.

The Afrikaans language issue was the detonator which led to the explosion of Black anger and frustration about the inferior position of Africans in South Africa. Early in 1976 students started boycotting classes taught in Afrikaans. In May Orlando West Junior Secondary School sarted general class boycott which spread to other Soweto schools and led to sporadic clashes with the police.

On Thursday, June 10 1976, students from Naledi High and Morris Isaacson schools suggested a mass demonstration. On Sunday, June 13 a meeting attended by 300-400 representatives from Soweto’s schools, was held at the Donaldson Community Centre in Orlando. An action committee comprising elected members and two delegates from each school organised the demonstration. Routes were decided upon and placards prepared. “Down with Afrikaans” became the rallying cry against the whole system.

SOWETO DAY

June 16 1976 was chosen for the demonstration. The students wanted a peaceful protest and although primary schools were asked to send children home on that day, many young scholars eventually joined the march. Over a dozen assembly points were chozen at various schools in Soweto. Students started gathering at 07:00. To confuse the police, each group had a set time for departure. The plan was to gather en masse at Orlando West and march to Orlando stadium for a mass rally. Leaders repeatedly called for calm and peaceful protest.

JUNE 16 1976 RIOTS

From Thomas Mofolo, the column which started at Naledi High but was now almost doubled, marched down Mphatlalatsane Street on the southern part of the township. They chanted free songs and the raucous rallying cry: P-O-W-E-R! P-O-W-E-R!

Some older people and younger school children stood watching from the sides, with some of the kids swelling the march.

Tebello, flanked by his lieutenants, some wielding sticks and knobkerries, led the column. Across the rivulet within the hollowed open space cutting Naledi from Tladi, the column swung left. It moved northwards through the grassy veld at the bottom of Tladi, then right into Ligwale Street turned eastwards.

A little above, but below Tladi Clinic, waited three police cars. The column approached. The police officers slowly drove ahead. They turned left at the Zola/Ligwale T-junction, but the march turned right towards Moletsane. The pupils, still singing and waving, taunted motorists travelling in the opposite direction. They hit cars with open hands and some motorists, frightened by the marching throng, turned back or fled into side streets.

At the top of Moletsane, the march once again turned right towards Molapo, where they collected other students from Molapo Junior. Cavorting in the streets through Jabavu and Molofo South, they headed towards Nancefield Station. Then they swung left at the bottom of the Vocational Training Centre, moving towards Dube Village, the famed tourist attraction with posh houses, some of them double-storied, on the way to Phefeni Junior beyond the rugged ridge ahead.

Thousands of other students from other schools - Musi, Mncube, Sekano-Ntoane, Morris Isaacson, Meadowlands, Diepkloof, Orlando North - were already converging on Vilakazi Street outside Phefeni junior. Phefeni Junior pupils and those from nearby Orlando West High streamed out, some jumping over fences to meet them.

The huge crowd blocked the entire street. It stood almost half a mile deep down the road, awaiting thousands more from Naledi, Moletsane, Molapo and Emdeni.

A policeman stood with a stengun cradled and a van full of police dogs next to him.

More police arrived in vans and trucks. They were armed and also accompanied by dogs. They climbed out of the vehicles and moved behind five officers, walking side by side towards the singing throng.

Opposite both the Phefeni Junior and the Orlando West High schools, the massive animated crowd standing deep down the road, blocked the street entirely. Impish, bouyant, they sang, waving placards. Five white police officers in blue uniforms stood side by side in the middle of the road about fifteen paces away. They found the sea of black faces below. Behind them more and more uniformed police, most of them black, and riot squad men alighted from police trucks, armed with rifles and accompanied by howling dogs. They strode down the tarred road towards the officers, the amassed pupils. They joked among themselves as they moved on. Several women, some with babies strapped to their backs, watched in groups from the roadside. Eeriness hung in the air.

“Are you really going to kill our children?” a woman in a group asked an African police sergeant as he strode past.

“No, there’ll be no shooting” the officer said calmly. “The children are not fighting anybody, they are only demonstrating.”

He was still talking when the white officer on the extreme right quickly stepped to the road, stooped down and picked up what seemed to be a stone. Then he hurled the object into the huge crowd. Instantly, the kids in the front of the column scattered to the sides. They picked up stones then hurriedly surged back into the street. “Power! Power!” they screamed, hesitantly advancing towards the police.

Bang! A shot rang out, then another and yet another. In rapid succession.

The throng broke up with the pupils fleeing in all directions to the rugged ridge behind the two schools, into alley ways, side streets and into homes. Some collapsed in their tracks as they fled, some ran on. Some remained petrified in the middle of the road. Police paid no attention to them. they stared at those running away. A police dog charged at the diminishing group in the street. And the group stoned it dead. Police fire stopped just as suddenly. A kid and a man lay dead, with several others wounded.

It seemed everybody was terribly shaken, but much more so the students themselves. They were grim, sullen, baffled. Dumbfounded they stood in groups all over the area while the wounded lay groaning on the ground.

For a moment even the on-lookers who had watched the singing and placard-waving and then bloody spectacle were petrified with fright. The peaceful protest march has turned sour. In a devastatingly cruel sort of way, an unprovoked show of power.

Police climbed onto their vehicles. They drove away and camped on an open ground across the Klip River which runs between Orlando West and Orlando East townships. For a while, the scattered pupils stood as if in a trance. Then they regrouped, returning to the street. Helped by motorists and reporters, they collected the dead and wounded. Some were driven to Baragwanath Hospital about two miles away, some were carried to the nearby Phefeni Clinic.

A white policeman in uniform then pulled out a revolver and aimed it at the pupils standing just in front of him. A colleague of mine said “Look at him, he’s going to shoot the kid!”

The policeman fired and more shots followed. The students then attacked the police. The schoolboy was 13 year old Hector Peterson. The pathologist’s report suggested when the bullet entered , he had his back to the officer and was bending forwards.

Photographer Samuel Nzima of The World said later, “The first shot was fired before the children started throwing stones”. Absolute chaos broke out. The children ran all over the place and stoned the police.

One of the principals of a school emptied of the marching students, called for the police. A student told the others; “Brothers and sisters, we have just received a report that the police are coming. I appeal you to keep calm and cool. Don’t taunt them, don’t do anything to them. We are not fighting.” (Weekend World).

The police arrived. Both white and black, they came in vanloads, armed with semi-automatic rifles, sub-machine guns, tear gas and batons. The police had loud hailers, but no attempt was made to talk to the pupils. Outside Orlando West Junior School, where the strike started six weeks earlier, the police formed a line in front of the pupils. “We thought they were going to disperse us with loud hailers or a loud speaker, or maybe talk to us. But they talked to themselves.” (Barney)

By June 21, 130 people had been killed and 1 118 civilians and 22 policemen injured. These clashes were the first in what became the most prolonged and violent confrontation between black protestors and the white government in South Afric’a history.

ROAD TO DEMOCRACY

The impact of the June 16 uprising was sweeping. The killing of children galvanised the parents who joined the pupils. Violence became an everyday occurrence in Black townships throughout the country. Many of South Africa’s black youth left the country to seek education overseas and joined the liberation movements in exile. The world-wide flood of sympathy strengthened the anti-apartheid campaign. Afrikaans as a medium of instruction at schools was dropped.

Whites in South Africa became aware, many of them for the first time, of African grievences and aspirations and the attitude of employers changed. Various bodies were created to improve the standard of living of Africans in the cities and to shape a more just society.

Government attempts to stamp its authority over the next decade by way of further banning orders, declarations of states of emergency and detention without trial were met with increasing resistance from all sectors of society.

Soweto Day redefined the relationship between Africans and the State. The sense of hoplessness was replaced by determination and increased political initiatives. Although it took more than a decade to reach fruition, a new democratic South Africa grew from the ashes brought about by the rampaging crowds of Soweto on that terrible day.

After nearly a century, the end of the freedom struggle was heralded by the release of Nelson Mandela and other political detainees in 1990, South Africa’s first democratic elections and the inauguration of Mandela as the country’s first black president in 1994.

SOME PROBLEMS:

1.Neither the Black nor the White populations are monolithic. Many interest groups are demanding voices in the process and there is competition for leadership. More and more, there are violent clashes between competing black groups. While most Whites have shown support for changing the country, there are several right wing groups (many active in the army and police) who have sworn to resist with violence, if necessary. They have been linked to recent political assasinations.

2.Many young blacks, alienated, not particularly well-educated, unemployed and impatient, have become increasingly militant and have no problem committing acts of violence against both the Black and the White populations.

3.Whites are wondering what will happen to them in a Black-dominated South Africa. Will they be able to remain in their current positions? Will they be forced to leave the country? What will they have to give up?

4.What kind of economic system will a post-Apartheid South Africa have? The ANC often talk about nationalization of industry and other socialist policies at a time when these very policies are being done away with around the globe.

MUST DO:

Create 5 questions you would ask a white South African aged 15-25 who grew up under apartheid and the transition from apartheid to democracy. Be prepared to share your questions with your classmates and put them to these young South Africans when they visit your class later this week.

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